Women's Voices

According to Boulder activist group Vox Feminista, it's time to declare war. The target? White supremacy. And the battle starts with tonight's premiere of White Lies."We are a group of mostly white women who live in Boulder, which is predominantly white," explains Joy Boston, founder of the fourteen-year-old Vox Feminista and producer of White Lies. "But for years we've been wanting to do a show that specifically addresses racism, asking how can we be anti-racist, dedicated to bringing down white supremacy?"

They chose not guns, sticks or swords for this full frontal attack, but the subtler blows dealt through drama, comedy, spoken word, drumming and video. "We don't want to lay blame; we want to break through these walls, connect with all people," says Boston. "This whole country has been set up by white men and built on the backs of people of color. We want to create a more level playing field."

A two-hour multimedia production featuring five cast members, White Lies covers everything from Denver's ongoing controversy over the Columbus Day parade to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. "Even though we are a local troupe, we also want to discuss global issues," says Boston. "They're all interconnected."

White Lies is Vox Feminista's biennial fall performance; past shows have touched on the war with Iraq and the drought. "We do step on toes, but only because we come from a very passionate place," says Boston. "Some people might not agree with everything that we're saying, but that's part of the appeal. We're trying to create a dialogue -- get people to express their opinions, whether they like us or not."

"We're trying to make all this information as entertaining and humorous as possible so people don't get overwhelmed with the issues," she adds. "It's good to try to look at a subject from a different way."

White Lies will be performed nine times in Denver and Boulder between now and November 22. You can catch the show tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m. at the Old Main Theater on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, and on Saturday, November 1, at the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street. Tickets to all performances are $10 and are available only at the door. Visit www.voxfeminista.org for a complete schedule. -- Julie Dunn

Max Brooks hexes zombie attacksMON, 10/27

Random House bills Max Brooks's The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead and its promotional tour as a humorous parody -- a spoof of a paranoid medium written as comic relief for an increasingly neurotic society. But for Brooks, a former SNL writer and son of famed comedian Mel Brooks, the topic's no laughing matter."Don't get me wrong -- I love to entertain," Brooks says. "But I'm doing this for one reason, and one reason only: to keep people safe. You never know when a zombie could attack. We must be prepared."

The free event comes to the Tivoli Turnhalle (room 250 in the Tivoli Building) on the Auraria campus at 1 p.m. today. Like the book, the performance will cover everything from accounts of past attacks to why it's not effective to immediately sever an infected limb. Anti-zombie moves will also be demonstrated on stage. "It will be both informative and interactive," Brooks promises.

Though chances are good that the average person will never actually be attacked by a zombie, Brooks feels that it is still wise to take preventative measures. "I've never been hit by a car," he says, "but I still look both ways before crossing the street, you know? I've never gotten scurvy before, but I still take Vitamin C."

As autumn turns to winter and the days grow dark and cold, it might not hurt to brush up on your zombie defense a bit. "Because you never know," Brooks comments cryptically. "You just never know." For more information, contact Metro Student Activities at 303-556-2595. -- Adam Cayton-Holland

The Music of PoetrySAT, 10/25

Colorado Chorale director Dan Grace is a poetry enthusiast, so he was thrilled when local composer Ely Karasik approached him with a new musical presentation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells." The piece inspired the group's Music of America's Poets concert at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Bethany Lutheran Church, 4500 East Hampden Avenue in Englewood. The program is structured around Karasik's premiere, for which the chorale will be joined by the Denver Brass. The rest of the evening, a melodic crash course in American poetry, offers settings of poems by Walt Whitman, e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, James Weldon Johnson and Thomas Hornsby Ferril. Though the works reflect a variety of eras and styles, Grace says the lineup embraces only a smattering of his favorite poets. "With this particular concert, it was really a matter of eliminating," he says, and the works that made the final cut are both poetically and musically exquisite. On a thematic note, however, the show is inclusive, with the "poets of Broadway," represented by Stephen Sondheim, Ira Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein II, also being showcased. For tickets, $13 to $15, call 303-446-9207. -- Jonelle Wilkinson Seitz

Free for AllKBCO party to mark Studio C's anniversarySAT, 10/25

KBCO's Studio C is marking its birthday with tonight's 15th Anniversary Concert, featuring performances by Melissa Etheridge, Ziggy Marley and Howie Day."Melissa Etheridge was the first artist to play Studio C, so it's pretty cool that we've got her coming back," says KBCO spokeswoman Alison Heller. "We've got great old music and great new music. It's going to be a very unique evening."

The celebration starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Temple Buell Theatre in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Tickets are free, but there's a catch: They must be won through the radio station. So today, whenever you hear one of the more than 1,000 live Studio C recordings -- from the Indigo Girls to Phish to Sting -- played on 97.3 FM, be the ninth or tenth caller to 303-631-2973 to win. "Listeners have been in a frenzy trying to get tickets," confirms Heller.

For die-hard fans, there is one other option: KBCO is auctioning off two ticket packages online; visit www.kbco.com for details. All proceeds from the evening will benefit the Boulder County AIDS Project. -- Julie Dunn

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